EPISODE 1 of 4: Teachers Become The Students
This week (June 2) on Shabbat Night Live, just when you think you have it all figured out, YeHoVaH takes you to the next level.
From coaching football, teaching in France, and detouring through a Native American reservation, Kraig and Anne Elliott learned to trust the Almighty’s leading — and ended up with everything they needed for a dream career they could never have imagined.
Watch the episode — included on this blog post.
While you watch, consider the questions below. The timeline for each discussion topic in the video is noted on each question. Post your answers in the comments section, and let’s get some discussion going!
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 16:00) How has the advocacy of cultural relativism, sexual transgression, and radical egalitarianism by the radical Left continued to undermine homeschooling, despite its utilization throughout contemporary faith communities? Have Christian colleges and universities been negligent in recognizing forgotten values owing to their reputations as reactionary institutions?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 20:00) How has the notion of teaching as a higher calling become corrupted by the cynicism of administrative pursuit of power and control, along with falling standards of competency within faculties? Is it still feasible for an educator to pursue an apostolate in primary and secondary education in the face of inflated bureaucracy and massive teacher unions?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 24:00) More optimistically, can the hand of YeHoVaH be discerned in the potential fragmentation of public and higher education thanks to the moribund nature of accreditation, tenure, and the brick-and-mortar campus? Could the homeschooled children of believers soon redefine independent learning through their utilization of digital media?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 27:00) How has the latter-day normalization of sexual transgression and promiscuity throughout our culture served to corrupt our standards of education, particularly at the primary level? How can recent curricular changes and textbook selection be viewed as evidence of Satan’s attempt to target the family as part of his agenda of the destruction of YeHoVaH’s creation?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 31:00) How is the difficulty of evangelizing Native American communities as described here further compounded by forces on the cultural Left who continue to exploit these peoples as victims of colonial oppression? How has a view of Christian faith efforts as cultural imperialism only served to reduce them to a stereotype of unurbanized nature-worshippers rather than viable converts to lives of faith?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 36:00) Similarly, how has the familiar practice of community outreach toward other faith cultures in the United States been obstructed by ostensible collusion with the very same media-industrial complex that could facilitate its success? Is the provision for religious freedom in our First Amendment in danger of extinction, despite its anti-state orientation?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 40:00) As with homeschooling, why does the larger matter of homemaking as a career continue to be controversial, despite its proven advantages to the personal and spiritual growth of children? What is the fear behind the reiteration of the chauvinist cliché of the “stay-at-home mom”? How does this reflect the failure of the cultural Left to recognize the nurturing power of women as a defining characteristic of genuine feminism?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 44:00) How has the spiritual ethos of today’s clergy been progressively undermined by the same bureaucratization that has afflicted most professional institutions in our contemporary world? How have members of the laity unwittingly contributed to ecclesiastical “administrative bloat,” owing less to spiritual zeal than to the temptations of power, however illusory?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 48:00) Furthermore, how has this phenomenon indirectly encouraged the exploitation of disabled or special needs children as a designated group for public education in its perpetual search for funding? How could a reintroduction of Judeo-Christian values into today’s curriculum, however incremental, arguably achieve more rapid results than merely demarcating these students as an unofficial “cash cow”?
- (VIDEO TIMELINE: 52:00) Similarly, how could an innovative ministry such as that introduced by the Elliotts be viewed as a viable conduit for these values? How might such a program of study lead to the rediscovery of an Old Testament text such as Proverbs, which continues to be a relevant source of learning, professionalism, and ethics despite its ancient provenance and its general neglect within denominational Christianity?
